The invention relates to an apparatus for receiving programs from a plurality of channels, comprising a tuner for tuning to any of the plurality of channels, and electronic program guide (EPG) means for presenting a schedule of the programs, the EPG means being adapted to present a schedule of a subset of said programs as being ostensibly scheduled for a personal channel.
The invention further relates to a method of receiving programs from a plurality of channels, comprising a step of presenting a program schedule for each channel, and a step of presenting a schedule of a subset of said programs as being ostensibly scheduled for a personal channel.
An apparatus as defined above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,254. The known apparatus comprises an electronic program guide (EPG) for presenting a schedule of the programs. The EPG is presented to the viewer as a time-channel matrix, each column comprising a schedule for a particular channel at a particular day. The EPG enables a user to select desired programs to be recorded or to be reminded of. The apparatus may select programs automatically as a recommendation when they meet certain criteria. Channels may be presented in different order, e.g. in accordance with the number of selected programs. In a particular embodiment, all selected programs are collected in one column, as if they were scheduled for an ostensible personal channel, thus providing a quick overview of the selected programs.
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus as defined above, providing improved ease-of-use with respect to selecting desired programs. To this end, the apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that the apparatus further comprises virtual channel means for creating a user selectable virtual channel for reproducing the programs of said subset, the apparatus being adapted to control the tuner to tune to a channel currently broadcasting a program of said subset. In this way, it is achieved that the user can actually select a virtual channel broadcasting the programs of the personal channel. The apparatus takes care of automatically tuning to the genuine channels broadcasting the programs compiled in the virtual channel. As a consequence, the user can view the desired programs by simply selecting the virtual channel, i.e. the virtual channel does not only provide a overview of selected programs, but also allows the programs to be navigated to automatically. No further user action is required, hence the usability of the apparatus is improved.
An advantageous embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention applies to digital television broadcasting, the channels being services of a digital broadcast stream which comprises for each respective service a service description relating a service identification to a plurality of program identifications The embodiment is characterized in that the virtual channel means are adapted to insert a new service description into the broadcast stream, the new service description relating a new service identification to a plurality of program identifications identifying the programs of the virtual channel. In this way the virtual channel is created by merely manipulating the information tables describing the digital broadcast stream. Other components need not be adapted, since they perceive the additional virtual channel as a genuine channel. For example, the EPG will display the virtual channel as all other channels and when the user selects the virtual channel the apparatus will automatically select the right programs from the broadcast stream, since the virtual channel comprises program pointers which are duplicated from the original channels.
A preferred embodiment applies to the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard, which is widely applied. This embodiment is characterized in that the broadcast stream is a stream conformant to the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) specifications, the service descriptions constituting the Service Description Table (SDT) of the DVB Service Information (SI). The virtual channel is created by inserting a new entry in the SDT, comprising a new service identification and duplicated pointers to the selected programs.
When programs are collected from multiple genuine channels, it may occur that some of the programs are broadcast simultaneously, hence cannot be viewed at the same time. An embodiment is characterized in that the apparatus further comprises scheduling means for assigning priority ratings to the programs of the virtual channel, for selecting a first program in favor of a second program when they are broadcast simultaneously and the first program has a higher priority rating than the second program. The priority ratings may be supplied by the user or assigned by the apparatus based on a user profile. For example, when the user has previously shown more interest in news programs than in sports programs, the system may assign a higher priority rating to the first category. The priority ratings are then used to decide which of the programs broadcast simultaneously have to be selected. An alternative embodiment is characterized in that the scheduling means are further adapted to record the second program, and reschedule it for the virtual channel to fill a gap before or after the programs scheduled for the virtual channel.
In this way the program which is of less interest to the user is recorded on a video recorder, and when at a later moment a substantial gap occurs in the schedule of the virtual channel, the recorded program is rescheduled to fill that gap. The apparatus is adapted to find the program on the video recorder and replay it at the appropriate time. Alternatively, the program with the highest priority rating could be recorded on the video recorder, ensuring that the user acquires a copy of the program which can be viewed even if the user is unable to watch the program when it is being broadcast.
An embodiment is characterized in that the virtual channel means are further adapted to store an identification of a default channel, and control the tuner to tune to said default channel when there is no program scheduled for the virtual channel. This provides an alternative way of filling gaps in the schedule of the virtual channel. When the user has selected the virtual channel while there is no program scheduled for that moment the tuner is controlled to tune to the default channel, but as soon as a program scheduled for the virtual channel starts, the tuner is controlled to tune to the genuine channel broadcasting said program.
An embodiment is characterized in that the apparatus further comprises user operable editing means for editing the priority ratings and/or the identification of the default channel and/or removing programs from and adding programs to the virtual channel. In this way, the user is enabled to control the program schedule of the virtual channel.
The automatic switching between genuine channels could be controlled by a clock in accordance with the start and stop times of the scheduled programs, or alternatively by processing signals from a service provider which indicate the start and stop times, e.g. signals of the Program Delivery Control (PDC) system.
An embodiment is characterized in that the virtual channel means are further adapted to create further user selectable virtual channels. For example, each member of a household may have a private virtual channel, possibly password protected. Alternatively, each virtual channel may be dedicated to programs of a particular category, e.g. there may be a virtual comedy channel, a virtual sports channel etc.
The invention is particularly suitable for television receivers, set-top boxes and video recorders, but could also be applied to radio receivers.